can't build small enough zImage for floppy
1st, the Sony Vaio Z505HS appears to be an example of a machine which will not boot a bzImage correctly, compaining about the compression format.
2nd, trying to build kernel 2.4.0, I stripped out or module-ized everything I could (I think) including SCSCI support, the smallest I've gotten zImage (under 600k) is still too big!
I don't know what else to try.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Jordan
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Quoted 3 lines · Jordan
1st, the Sony Vaio Z505HS appears to be an example of a machine which will not boot a bzImage correctly, compaining about the compression format.
I can say from experience that this is not the case. In fact, the kernel binaries (RPM) I provide on my Z505 page (http://www.foogod.com/z505_linux) are bzImages (currently those are still test5, though I have used later ones on my own machine as well, and will probably be upgrading the page to 2.4.0 final eventually). I will admit that I haven't tried booting them from a floppy.. perhaps this is where the problem lies.
The Z505HS does have a USB floppy drive, which is the only thing I can think of that's different from most other machines which might affect this, but I do know that that doesn't stop a 2.2 kernel from booting off of it (though there are problems accessing the floppy after the initial boot without USB drivers, of course)
I will look into building a 2.4.0 floppy-bootable kernel on my Z505 and see if I can reproduce the problems you're having.
-alex
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Quoted 3 lines · Jordan
1st, the Sony Vaio Z505HS appears to be an example of a machine which will not boot a bzImage correctly, compaining about the compression format.
Maybe you need to upgrade to a newer version of lilo?
Quoted 3 lines
2nd, trying to build kernel 2.4.0, I stripped out or module-ized everything I could (I think) including SCSCI support, the smallest I've gotten zImage (under 600k) is still too big!
Don't use ``make zImage'', use ``make bzImage'' (big zImage) amd the size will be fine.
Signature · 6 lines
Manfred - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected] Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Quoted 3 lines · Jordan
1st, the Sony Vaio Z505HS appears to be an example of a machine which will not boot a bzImage correctly, compaining about the compression format.
I have this exact model too, and it boots bzImage just fine. In fact, I've never booted anything but bzImage's on it. Maybe a BIOS issue that a fw upgrade will fix?
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* Jens Axboe <[email protected]> * SuSE Labs - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected] Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
Quoted 10 lines · Jordan
Quoted 2 lines · [email protected] wrote:
I forgot to ask.. when attempting to boot from a floppy, are you using SYSLINUX, or something else? What version?
unsure. I have booted floppies on my machine before which displayed SYSLINUX on boot, but the 2.4.0 kernel I compiled (on my Red Hat 6.2 with 2.2.14-5.0 Vaio Desktop) and used "make bzdisk" to make the disk, does not display SYSLINUX while booting. It displays
Quoted 6 lines
Loading.........................................
Uncompressing Linux...invalid compressed format (err=21)
-- System Halted
Ah, this explains it.. the basic bootloader built into the kernel images is apparently not compatible with the Z505 (possibly because it doesn't like the BIOS emulation done to make the USB floppy look like a traditional floppy drive during boot). I've never attempted this form of booting a kernel before, so I hadn't seen this behavior (of course this method also seems to have different problems booting on my desktop system, too, so..). Had you managed to make a small enough zImage you would have had the same results.
My advice is to try using SYSLINUX
(http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/boot/syslinux/) to load the kernel instead of writing it straight to the floppy, as this is known to work on the Z505 and is more flexible anyway.
-alex
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